Police believe Paterson robberies tied to monthlong string of holdups

PATERSON – Police believe two gunpoint robberies of city businesses Thursday night were committed by the same men suspected in a string of holdups of groceries and liquor stories across the city in the last several weeks.

Two hoodie-wearing men robbed a grocery store and a liquor store at gunpoint within 25 minutes of each other Thursday night, escaping with an undisclosed amount of cash.

The pattern of the two robberies matched that of several recent incidents, said Detective Lt. Richard Reyes. “We’re investigating the possibility that the perpetrators were the same,” he said.

The first store to be hit on Thursday night was the Maria Grocery, at 865 Main St., at 9:17 p.m., when two men wearing black hooded sweatshirts and brandishing handguns forced a 55-year-old employee to turn over cash and then fled, Reyes said.

At 9:40 p.m., two men in black hoodies and carrying handguns forced two employees to turn over cash at the Liquor Gallery store, at 459 McBride Ave., Reyes said.

The two stores are about three miles apart.

“Obviously if it was the same two men, they used a car to get from one to the other, but we have no information on that,” Reyes said.

Police Capt. Heriberto Rodriguez on Friday provided a list of addresses of groceries and liquor stores that have been robbed in the last 30 days, but police could not provide names of establishments or dates of the robberies. Each robbery took place between 9:30 p.m. and 12:15 a.m., Rodriguez said in a press release.